The design of track-node hybrid sound editing interface for computer animators

Abstract

The increasing popularity of computer animation and the affordable price of both software and hardware have drawn lots of independent animators to design their own small productions. However, in these animators’ productions, consideration given to visual content quality usually overrides audio quality, despite the fact that they are both equally important. As a result, such humble soundtrack discredits the animation even if it has high-quality imagery. The problem is due to two reasons – first, existing sound-editing tools are mainly designed for sound professionals and not for these animators; and second, these animators working in their deprived production environment are not aware of sound design issues, as well as possess no appropriate audio tool. In this thesis, our objectives include (1) suggest a “Sound-On-Editing” approach to guide independent animators to create animation sounds and (2) propose a theoretical interface design of which animators can edit sound. Our proposed interface design is based on the track and node-based scheme with which animators are already familiar with in other animation software and so such an interface can at the same time reduce the technical complexity of audio software as well as simulate an animation interface environment which they can easily recognized. One of the unique features of our interface is that it can include 3D scenic attributes in the sound creation process, as well as provide basic or packed audio effects for animators with varying degrees of sound-editing cognition. We believe that our interface is both user-friendly and flexible in audio manipulation, is superior to existing pro-audio software interfaces, can assist computer animators in the handling of animation sound as well as enhance better soundtrack quality in animation production.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2008
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Kam Wah WONG (Supervisor)